Summer Produce Hacks

Bump up your nutrition with a few summer produce hacks:

•   Berries - look for color & smell.  Color should be vibrant and especially with strawberries, they should smell very strawberry-ish.  Loaded with Vitamin C, anthocyanin and other antioxidants, they are a boon to your health in so many ways.  Think outside the cereal bowl by making: 

Berry Grilled Cheese Sandwich - Spread one piece of whole grain bread with apricot preserves, layer on some raspberries and slices of havarti cheese then top with the other slice and grill.  Makes a great breakfast sandwich. 

•   Stone fruits - Store at room temperature until ripe, then keep in the fridge. Refrigerate cherries right away separately so they don’t absorb other flavors. Stone fruits contain phenolic compounds that protect against inflammation, diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease.  Let them play a starring role by making:

Stone Fruit Stack Caprese Salad – layer nectarines, fresh mozzarella & basil then drizzle with balsamic vinegar & honey.

•   Corn on the Cob - Go with look and feel. It should feel firm when squeezed, have glossy silk, the tight husk should be grass-green in color.  Fresh corn is best within 24 hours, but you can keep it up to 3 days in the fridge.  Corn is good source of fiber and contains copounds that promote healthy vision.  It has the same amount of calories as an apple with less than ¼ of the sugar.  With the leftover cobs, cut off the kernels and make:

Corn& tomato pizza. 

•   Mangoes - I LOVE the easy drinking-glass-peel method for mango prep. Mangoes are great source of fiber, vitamin C and vitamin A.  It's nutrition helps maintain healthy skin and it’s relatively low glycemic index is helpful in maintaining blood sugar. For a healthful and delicious snack on a hot day try:

Frozen Yogurt-Dipped Mango Pops - freeze mango slices, then dip in vanilla yogurt and return to the freezer for 30 minutes.  Wonderfully healthy popsicles are just that easy.

Nutrition for Happy Digestion

Gastritis, ulcers, heartburn, constipation, diarrhea, bloating and irritable bowel are unfortunately common in the lives of many.  Here are some suggestions as to how nutrition can help improve some of your digestive woes. 

       De-stress.  Easier said than done, but stress hormones play a big role in problematic digestion.  Meal and menu-planning ahead of time not only help balance your nutrition, but reduce a lot of the stress involved with mealtime.  Walking or moving around after a meal to helps combat heartburn and bloating as well as reducing stress.  
  

Keep Track.  Digestion problems are vary widely from one person to another and there is no one-size-fits-all answer.  Noting what you eat and what symptoms you have goes a long way to helping you identify what are safe and what are problem foods.  Remember that just because a food may be more problematic doesn’t mean you can’t ever eat it again.  For example, a thick slice of raw onion on a burger may slay you, but a small amount of sautéed onions may be just fine. 

       Step away from the deep-fryer.  Fried foods are notorious when it comes to tummy troubles.  Limit fatty, fried foods in favor of more fruits and vegetables. 

       Fiber-up from real food.  On average, Americans consume about ½ of the recommended fiber we should be getting from our diet.  You may think that a simple solution is a couple extra-high fiber cereal bars, but often the isolated fibers that are added to processed foods don’t provide the benefits of naturally occurring fiber and sometimes cause more bloating and GI issues.  Apples, oats, pears, oranges, plums and carrots are examples of the soluble fiber that can help with diarrhea and IBS.  However, if constipation is the issue, insoluble fiber is the body’s regulator – so go for: bran, beans, corn and whole wheat.

       Go steady with water.  Water should be your beverage of choice.  Alcohol, Caffeine and Carbonated beverages can all cause problems with your digestion.

       3 picks for a happy gut: 1. Yogurt – a low-fat protein source full of gut-healthy probiotics.  2. An apple a day – from applesauce in the “brat” diet your mom fed you as a sick child, to a crisp tart apple as a midday snack, apples not only contain soluble fiber but also appear to improve the bacteria in your intestinal tract. 3.  Oats - a great way to maintain regularity without resorting to laxatives. 
The take-home message is that a balanced diet full of fruits, veggies, whole grains and water coupled with regular nutrition will do more to improve your digestion than any single food product or item.  For more individualized nutrition help with digestive problems contact me for a consult. http://nutritiousintent.com

Summertime With Kiddos: Cooking 101

Are you enrolling your kiddos in Cooking 101 this summer?  Before you frantically start googling this summer school course, let me answer a few FAQ:

1. Yes, you are the instructor. 
2. Yes, it is held in your kitchen.  
3. Yes, it involves cooking (i.e. frustration, mess and mistakes mixed in with a lot of tasty results, fun and some serious life-skills.)

Why bother?

Studies show that children who learn to cook tend to make better food choices.  They end up more open to eating fruits and vegetables and that leads to better lifelong health.  What does my personal experience tell me?  Kids who cook it are more willing to eat it.  They have a greater appreciation for food and the work that goes into preparing it and feel the satisfaction in feeding others real, tasty food.  But there's another reason I teach my kids how to cook early on: Grandkids.  Yep.  My theory is that if they have some good culinary skills, that may just help them snag me a wonderful son or daughter-in-law and later on down the road my grandkids will grow up in a healthful environment where cooking is the rule and eating out the exception (instead of the reverse).  Yes, I want my kids to have the skills to survive the real world on their own, but in reality, I'd prefer that they use those skills to build their own future happy, healthy homes and families.

How? 

Start simple.  Make one recipe a week with your child.  Maybe it is as simple as having them help wash the celery for ants on a log.  Maybe it's helping them choose the fruits for a fruit salad.  Later on you might branch out and make a batch of homemade granola together or blended-fruit popsicles.  Baking day is always a hit at my house in the summer.  We make a batch of bread dough together and then everyone gets a lump of dough to turn into whatever they want.  Sometimes it becomes a pizza loaf, other times it becomes a cinnamon-swirl-chocolate-chip loaf, and sometimes it becomes gooey caramel rolls.

This time, it was hot cocoa powder-swirl bread.

Involve them in the menu planning, shopping and preparation.  Once they start getting experience in the kitchen and are old enough, let them make dinner.  This is where a lot of the frustration may set in, but that is ok, keep persevering.
Use books as a springboard to cooking.  Stone Soup is a great way to get kids to make soup for dinner.  Maybe with older kids, a trip to a secondhand bookstore to browse cookbooks might spark their culinary creativity.  And yes, there's obviously a mountain of online resources as well (but sometimes a tangible cookbook fits the bill better than an online tutorial).

If you can read, you can cook and SHOULD cook.  If you are a parent, or guardian, or mentor, you can and SHOULD teach your kids to cook as well.  Few life skills will serve them and those around them as effectively for the rest of their life.  

So grab some aprons, take a deep breath and dive in to your own personal Cooking 101 course.  Oh, and keep that broom handy!

Sprouting: Easiest & Tastiest Use of a Quart Jar

Sprouts always seem to get mixed publicity.  On one hand, they are tasty, nutritious and an excellent culinary addition to sandwiches, salads and more.  On the other hand, they are notorious for causing food-borne illness such as salmonella, listeria and other pathogens.  In fact, due to this risk, many food chains have removed them from their menu offerings.  There is a way to enjoy these low-calorie, nutrient rich sandwich toppers without risking your health: sprout at home! Sprouting at home puts you in the drivers seat so you can make sure nothing else contaminates the sprouts on your salad. With very little investment of either money or time, you can be enjoying sprouts with no food safety worries.  It only takes about 5-6 days for most sprouts from start to sandwich.  

To start sprouting, here's what you need and how to do it:

1. A wide mouth quart jar with a screw on ring, cheesecloth, and sprouting seeds.  You want to use seeds specific for sprouting and not just any seeds from your garden store.  The reason is that seeds designed for planting may be coated with chemicals designed to improve germination that you don't want on your sandwich.  Radish sprouts are my favorite, but I also enjoy broccoli sprouts, alfalfa and I'm dying to try basil sprouts.  There are oodles of choices when it comes to sprout varieties. Search online or check your local whole-foods market for sprouting seeds.
   
2. Step two is rinsing and soaking.  Add a couple tablespoons of seeds to your jar and fill with a couple inches of water.  Follow your package instructions as it may vary from seed to seed variety.  For radish sprouts I only had to soak them for 4-6 hours ( you can soak them overnight).
   
3. Next, cut a square of a few layers of cheese cloth.  This becomes the lid to your jar that allows you to drain and rinse your seeds as they are sprouting.  Screw the ring over the cheesecloth and drain the water out from your seed soak.  
   
4. Cover your jar.  You don't want sunlight entering the scene just yet.  Let those cute little seeds work their magic in the dark by covering them with a dishtowel or cloth.  Wait . . . for a while at least before you move on to the next step.
   
5. 2-3 times a day you will want to rinse your seeds/sprouts.  Keep the cheesecloth on and just run water through the cheese cloth - 1/2 cup or so is plenty.  Swish those babies around a bit, then pour out the water.  Yes, this is why you want that cheesecloth barrier.  After rinsing, cover the jar and wait some more.  Truly a couple times a day - morning and evening is sufficient for rinsing.  
   
6. After a day or so, you'll start seeing some exciting action in that humble jar.  Just keep up the twice-a-day rinsing.
   
7. About day 4 or 5 you'll notice that your sprouts have started shedding the seed coats and that there are little leaflets.  Yes, contain your excitement, you're almost done.  
   
8. When your sprouts have mostly filled your jar, started to leaf out and shed their seed coats, dump them into a bowl and fill it with water.  The seed coats will float to the top and you can skim them off.  
   
9. Drain the sprouts and put them in a plastic zip-top bag.  Place this somewhere sunny for a day as this will allow the sprouts to green up by finally getting some sun!  A day in a windowsill or normally sunny room is plenty of time for them to make all that yummy and nutritious chlorophyll.  
10. Rinse them again.  I like to put a paper towel in the bag at this point just to keep them from going bad to quickly in my fridge.  Keep them in an airtight bag or container in your fridge.  They will last for at least a week if you make sure to rinse them once a day and replace that paper towel.  You'll probably want to not even put that jar away.  Instead you can start another sprouting batch to keep you in good sprout supply.  
    
    
    
11. Final step - eat, devour, enjoy, savor, whatever term you like for gobbling up all that safe, sprouty goodness!